Rome Jubilee 2025: How to avoid the crowds

For devout Catholics around the world, the countdown is on for the 2025 Jubilee in Rome. Occurring every 25 years since 1470, a Jubilee is an occasion for pilgrims to visit the religion’s holiest sites and ask for forgiveness for their sins.

This means that Rome is shaping up to be more crowded than ever. Italy’s National Tourist Research Institute estimates that 35 million visitors will descend on the Eternal City in 2025, and hotels are already selling out.

The Jubilee officially kicks off on Christmas Eve of this year, with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, and will end on the holy day of the Epiphany, Jan. 6, 2026. The Holy Doors at Rome’s three other papal basilicas — St. John in Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major — will also be opened. These Holy Doors, which will be opened ceremonially by Pope Francis, are actually bricked up and sealed between Jubilee years.

Pope Francis has declared this Jubilee the Year of Prayer, with Jubilee days for various groups, including workers, the disabled, the elderly and prisoners. There will also be concerts, conferences and other events.

In preparation for the influx of crowds, several restoration projects and infrastructure improvements have been in progress for the last few months. Cobblestones are being torn up and streets repaved. The Metro has been closing early for construction. Scaffolding currently covers up the Trevi Fountain, the angels on the St. Angelo Bridge and the Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona.

“The center of Rome will be so crowded that they’re going to charge people to visit the Trevi Fountain,” says Elisa Valeria Bove, CEO of Roma Experience, a luxury tour operator.

Of the clients who have already booked tours with her for 2025, some are coming for the Jubilee and want to pass through the Holy Door, some are believers but haven’t requested to pass through the door, and others are worried because they didn’t know about the Jubilee.

“Planning ahead is the best way to orient oneself during a year when Rome will be full of tourists,” she says. “Last-minute bookings will be impossible.”

If you want to visit Rome next year — either for the Jubilee or despite it — here are some tips to remember.

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Avoid the Vatican during its busiest days

The Vatican is always busy during holidays like Christmas and Easter, which certainly won’t change during the Jubilee. But there are several Jubilee days, such as the Jubilee of Teenagers on April 25-27, that you might want to avoid as well. According to Bove, a million youths are expected then.

“It’s a good idea to visit the Vatican outside of the dates when the pope will be present for events,” says Bove, who has experienced two Jubilees, first as a tourist in 2000 and then as a tour guide in 2016, when Pope Francis declared an extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. “Avoid Wednesday when there’s the papal audience,” she says. “Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be the least crowded.”

These days, Rome has very little in the way of an offseason, but the city tends to be its quietest in the winter, outside of the Christmas holidays. In the summer — especially August — Romans tend to leave on vacation, making it quieter. Indeed, August is the only month without any Jubilee days scheduled. (However, it’s also when Rome is at its hottest, with high temperatures in the 90s most days this past August.)

Seek alternatives to major landmarks

“I’m steering my clients toward other places, when possible,” Bove says. “Rome has a number of incredible alternatives.”

She suggests visiting Ostia Antica or the Villa of the Quintilii on the Appian Way as an alternative to the Roman Forum. Instead of the Borghese Gallery, try Palazzo Colonna or Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, two noble palaces whose owners have opened them up to visits.

Bove also recommends museums with antiquities collections, such as Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, the Baths of Diocletian and the Capitoline Museums, which tend to be less crowded than the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum.

“And don’t forget about places outside of Rome,” she says, suggesting a visit to Caprarola, a town about an hour north of Rome, where you can visit the incredible Villa Farnese, which is full of Renaissance frescoes, including a map room that inspired the one at the Vatican.

Isabella Calidonna, founder of ArcheoRunning, which offers jogging and walking tours of Rome, is introducing a handful of new tours to show visitors alternative sides of the city.

One such tour will touch on Catholic tropes by searching for the city’s Madonnellas, i.e., little shrines to the Virgin Mary. A new “stargazing” tour will bring people to see starry skies painted inside the city’s churches. But she also offers plenty of tours that have nothing to do with religion, including a new “Emily in Paris”-themed tour.

Go as early — or late — as possible

Calidonna has long emphasized the early morning hours as the best time for her running tours, and she plans to double down on early morning tours in 2025. In the winter, her tours start at 7 a.m., while in the summer, they begin at 6 or 6:30 a.m.

Bove also recommends starting tours around 7:30 a.m. — or waiting until the evening, when most people are having dinner, to visit famous sites and squares like the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona.

Some museums, including the Vatican Museums, have extended hours on certain days of the week. The Colosseum typically offers after-hour tours in the warmer months for visitors who want to avoid the heat and the crowds. It’s always a good idea to check for extended opening hours.